Sunday, August 7, 2011

Hey everyone! As you can probably tell, I am kinda/sorta/maybe/very obsessed with music. And not just the normal stuff like mainstream pop, country, rap, etc., but the best kind of all - self made! Make sense? Nah, I didn't think so. Point is, instrumental music is my passion! Marching band, concert band, small ensembles, orchestra, they are all freaking amazing! What exactly makes them so wonderful, you may ask? Why, the instruments of course! There are literally hundreds of instruments out there, and I plan on learning to play as many as I possibly can. Yeah, I never said I was sane!

This isn't just a month-long project, this is a life goal. On average, it takes three months to play decently on an instrument, but only if you practice constantly and have a musical background of some sort already. Luckily for me, I took piano lessons for almost a year in 4th grade. While I never became too good, this gave me a solid foundation for my obsession to take off on. Without piano, I would have never learned to read music! And without reading music, it would be impossible to learn one instrument, let alone every possible one!

My musical life story isn't too feeble, but it is still far from the best. I played piano in 4th grade for a year, but soon quit because I got too busy. In 6th grade, I joined the band to play clarinet, and now I have been playing for almost 5 years! This past March I fell in love with an instrument very different from my first two - the acousic guitar. I played until my fingers bled, and now I can play most chords and a few simple tabs. Over the next few years I plan on getting progressively better. Around this past April, I made my decision - I loved instruments too much to just stick with three, so why not learn them all?

So far my only main opposition is money - buying every instrument would amount to much more that I could ever hope to spend! Our family owns a piano, I own a clarinet, and I am using my mom's old flute. I can only hope that the others can be gathered from family members who no longer need them or bought for low prices, but I have faith that it will all work out!